For the third consecutive year, a Michigan Capitol Confidential story that was linked on the Drudge Report news aggregator, as well as several other national blogs, garnered the most hits of anything we posted this year. Research Associate Jarrett Skorup’s story about the city of Detroit’s water department employing a horseshoer due to antiquated union agreements also drew the attention of Fox News, John Stossel, The Wall Street Journal, MSN, Reason and The Washington Times.

Below are the top 25 items overall, including blog posts, commentaries and analysis posted at www.mackinac.org and www.michcapcon.com. The list is not scientific, however, and is based on page views relative to posting dates between Dec. 15, 2011, and Dec. 15, 2012.